John Van Couvering

Editor in Chief, Micropaleontology Press; Adjunct Professor, City University of New York Graduate Program in Anthropology; PhD Geology, University of Cambridge, 1973

Fields of Study

Principles and practices in stratigraphic geology; age and environments of Cenozoic mammal faunas of Africa and southern Eurasia; the Neogene time scale and chronostratigraphic boundaries.

Current Research Interests

With limited time for field work, I have focused in recent years on well defined. cooperative projects (Namibia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Italy) that touch on my interest in mammalian biochronology and continental chronostratigraphy, particularly with regard to the hominoid-bearing faunas. I have been working in recent years on a scheme of land mammal ages for Africa, and on the history and status of Neogene epoch boundaries. I serve on international and national working groups concerned with the stratigraphic code, and I participate in regional studies of such problems as the Messinian desiccation event and the beginning of the Pleistocene.

Selected Publications

Van Couvering, J. A., Ed. (1996) The Pleistocene boundary and the beginning of the Quaternary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.